It's a Long Way to Tipperary is a British music hall song written by Jack Judge and co-credited to, but not co-written by, Henry James "Harry" Williams.[1][2] It was allegedly written for a 5 shilling bet in Stalybridge on 30 January 1912 and performed the next night at the local music hall. Judge's parents were Irish, and his grandparents came from Tipperary.[3] It became popular among soldiers in the First World War and is remembered as a song of that war.
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During the First World War the Irish regiment the Connaught Rangers were witnessed singing this song as they marched through Boulogne on 13 August 1914 by the Daily Mail correspondent George Curnock, who reported the event in that newspaper on 18 August 1914. The song was then picked up by other units of the British Army. In November 1914 it was recorded by the well-known tenor John McCormack, which helped contribute to its worldwide popularity.[4]
In 1917, a Miss Alice Smyth Burton Jay sued song publishers Chapell & Co. for $100,000, alleging that the original music was written by her in 1908, for a song played at the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition promoting the Washington apple industry. The chorus began "I'm on my way to Yakima."[5] The court selected Victor Herbert to act as expert advisor[6] and, in 1920, dismissed the suit, based on evidence that the authors of Tipperary had never been to Seattle, and on testimony from Victor Herbert that the two songs were not so similar as to suggest piracy.[7]
One of the most popular hits of the time, the song is typical in that it is not a war-like song, which incites the soldiers to glorious deeds. Popular songs in previous wars (such as the Boer Wars) frequently did this. In the First World War however, the most popular songs, like this one and "Keep the Home Fires Burning", concentrated on the longing for home.
First sung on the British music hall stage in 1913 by Florrie Forde, it was featured as one of the songs in the 1951 film On Moonlight Bay, the 1960s stage musical and film Oh! What a Lovely War and the 1970 musical Darling Lili, sung by Julie Andrews. It was also sung by the prisoners of war in Jean Renoir's film La Grande Illusion, by the crew of U-96 in Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot (that particular arrangement was performed by the Red Army Choir), as background music in The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, and by the newsroom staff in the final episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It is also the second part (the other two being Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire and Mademoiselle from Armentières) of the regimental march of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. Mystery Science Theater 3000 used it twice, once for the final television episode, then sung again by Crow T. Robot in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie. It is also sung by British soldiers in the film The Travelling Players directed by the Theo Angelopoulos, and by Czechoslovak soldiers in the movie Černí baroni.
This song is not to be confused with a popular song from 1907 simply titled "Tipperary". Both were sung at different times by early recording star Billy Murray. Murray, with the American Quartet, sang "It's A Long Way To Tipperary" as a straightforward march, complete with brass, drums and cymbals, with a quick bar of "Rule Britannia" thrown into the instrumental interlude between the first and second verse-chorus combination [1].
The song is often cited when documentary footage of World War I is presented. One example of its use is in the annual television special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Snoopy — who fancies himself as World War I flying ace — dances to a medley of World War I-era songs played by Schroeder. This song is included, and at that point Snoopy falls into a left-right-left marching pace. Schroeder also played this song in Snoopy Come Home at Snoopy's party. Also, Snoopy was seen singing the song out loud in a series of strips about his going to the 1968 Winter Olympics.
The cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show march off screen singing the song at the conclusion of the series' final episode.
In the 1981 World War II film Das Boot, morale is boosted in the U-boat when the German crew sings the song as they start patrolling in the North Atlantic ocean to disturb convoy traffic to Britain. The crew sings it a second time as they cruise toward home port after near disaster.
The Great Escape video game features the song as its theme.
The song is the topic of Bill Caddick's song "The Writing of Tipperary," which was recorded by June Tabor on her 2000 CD, "A Quiet Eye."
The tune is played by the carrilion in the Sint-Niklaaskerk church in Mesen, Belgium.
It found regained popularity after being sung in the 1998 hit film Goodnight Mister Tom.
An alternative concluding chorus, bawdy by contemporaneous standards:
The Kannadiga playwright and poet, T.P. Kailasam, as part of a wager from a British friend, translated the song into Kannada, adding witty Kannada-specific lyrics. The resulting song, "Namma Tipparahalli balu Doora" (halli meaning "village" in Kannada), is a popular song in Karnataka. This version can be heard played by a marching band in the Bengali film, Pather Panchali, directed by Satyajit Ray.
The University of Missouri uses a version of "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" as a fight song, renamed "Every True Son".[8]
"It's a Long Way from Amphioxus", a parody of this song, is sung by students and scientists as an affirmation of evolution. It was originally recorded by Sam Hilton and is the official song of the Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago.[9] The chorus goes,
The song is also an example of a partner song, or simultaneous quodlibet, in that the chorus of the song can be sung at the same time as another well known music hall song, "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag", in perfect harmony.